Chris Holden is an Associate Professor in UNM’s Honors College (tenured in 2015). His PhD is in number theory (2008, U Wisconsin-Madison), but his research is currently at the intersection of mobile, games, learning, and local place. He is an active member of ARIS project (since 2009). ARIS is easy-to-use open source software for making mobile games, tours, and other experiences. Chris mostly helps people think about these areas and put their ideas into action, as well as participating in design and implementation himself. A game he made with Julie Sykes, Mentira, is particularly well-known in language learning circles. He sometimes gets some time to write about this work at http://localgameslababq.wordpress.com.
Here are a few academic pieces he’s written, in case you’re interested:
- Mathews, J., & Holden C. (in Press). The design and play of geogames as place-based education. In Geogames and geoplay: Game-based approaches to geo-information. New York, NY. Springer.
Mobile Media Learning: Innovation and Inspiration (2015). Holden et al. ETC Press - Holden, C. (2014). The Local Games Lab ABQ: Homegrown Augmented Reality. TechTrends, 58(1), 42–48.
Holden, C. L., & Sykes, J. M. (2011). Leveraging mobile games for place-based language learning. International Journal of Game-Based Learning (IJGBL), 1(2), 1–18.
Chris enjoys a lot of different games. All-time favorites include Starbound, Stepmania (née Dance Dance Revolution), and Katamari Damacy. He has a weakness for pixels 2D platformers.
When Chris did pure math research, his interests were mostly in algebraic number theory. He studied correspondences between elliptic curves and Galois representations of extensions of the rational numbers. The article below contains his first result which was expanded upon in his dissertation.
- Holden, C. (2008). Mod 4 Galois representations and elliptic curves. Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society, 136(1), 31–39.
- Dissertation: Mod 4 Galois Representations and Elliptic Curves
Chris is originally from Albuquerque. He and his wife were both students in the Honors program at UNM. Together they have two boys, Alex and Will. He lives in his grandparents’ old house, where he grew up a bit (they graduated from UNM too!) in the house he grew up in, just a few blocks from campus.
If you have interests in learning, design of interactive systems, videogames, digging into local places, math, or math education, and are looking for some mentorship, it might be a good idea to find Chris outside of class and start with a chat. He received important guidance to get where he is, and knows there is only so much education one can get from coursework.
You can call him Chris, unless that’s not formal enough for you. Some people insist on Dr. Holden, or in the dorms he signs off as Dr. C.
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Offices and Hours
I have a number of offices on campus, and hours you can expect to find me there
- Honors (2D)
- Tuesday and Thursday, 12:30-2
- Wednesday, 1-2 (probably with a couple kids in tow, but don’t let that keep you away)
- Hokona 200
- Tuesday and Thursday, 3:30-5
- Wednesday, 7-9
- Once monthly food-based gatherings of the Scholars Wing
- The OILS Learning Lab (2nd floor of Zimmermann Library
- Wednesday, 2-3
Each of these places corresponds to a role here on campus. Chris is, in addition to his position in Honors, also the Faculty Advisor to the Honors Scholars Wing, a Living Learning Community connected to Hokona Hall and an SRC dorm, and he has affiliate appointments with two other departments on campus, Educational Linguistics and Organization, Information, and Learning Sciences (OILS). In this latter capacity, he is part of an effort to create an open, discipline agnostic maker space on campus, the OILS Learning Lab. There, you’ll find everything from a high end sewing machine to a 3D printer, legos and Arduino. Come and check it out during his weekly hour there, or set up an appointment for another time of the week.
